The dashcam video shows that Scott was walking backwards with his hands at his side when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Brentley Vinson fired four shots at him.
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Charlotte Police released body cam and dashcam video Saturday in this past week’s officer-involved shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
The city was still healing from the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man who was shot by a white police officer in 2013 when Mr Scott’s death reopened old wounds, protesters have said. Neighbors have said there was no gun, but Chief Kerr Putney has been adamant the footage would back up his officers’ initial claims.
Police said in a press release that plainclothes officers were in the parking lot preparing to serve an arrest warrant against someone else Tuesday when an SUV parked beside them.
Police released photos of a marijuana cigarette, an ankle holster they said Scott was wearing, and a handgun, which they said was loaded and had Scott’s fingerprints and DNA.
Police have continually said that Scott was armed at the time of the encounter, a contention that his family has disputed and which gave rise to the protests and rioting in Charlotte.
Family of Keith Scott, who was killed on Tuesday, said the footage showed Scott was not acting aggressively and said the police shooting did not make sense.
“Due to the combination of illegal drugs and the gun Mr. Scott had in his possession, officers made a decision to take enforcement action for public safety concerns”, the document said. But, added to witness statements and other evidence, he said the evidence was definitive.
“You can’t clearly identify what, if anything, is in his hand”, Bamberg said.
Governor Pat McCrory said Friday that it would be improper of him to say if the video should be released by local authorities, saying that CMPD was the custodian of the original video and had the legal authority to release it despite the SBI leading initiating its investigation of the shooting.
On Saturday, Putney released to the public footage from one of the officers’ body cameras, as well as dashboard camera.
The video shows officers surrounding a black man with his hands at his side before shots are fired and he buckles to the ground.
“They look in the auto and they see the marijuana, they don’t act”. In the video, Mrs. Scott can be heard pleading with officers to hold fire as they confronted her husband in a parked auto outside the apartment complex.
The timeline continues: “Officer [Brentley] Vinson perceived Mr. Scott’s actions and movements as an imminent physical threat to himself and the other officers”.
On Saturday, Charlotte police posted two videos online.
Earlier Saturday, the NAACP in Charlotte joined the calls for police to share the footage, calling it “video that is ours”. But after an officer “observed Mr. Scott hold a gun up”, police put on marked vests to identify themselves as officers, police added. He remains convinced Scott had committed a crime and had a gun.
But the State Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case, said earlier it wouldn’t release police video for fear of compromising its review.
“Officers are absolutely not being charged by me, but again, there’s another investigation ongoing”, he said. Investigators say that Scott refused to follow the officers’ repeated verbal commands. On Thursday, protests were largely peaceful after National Guard members came to the city to help keep order and the mayor imposed a curfew.
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Putney said Scott was “absolutely in possession of a handgun”. A suspect was arrested, but police provided few details. Multiple state and local officials, including Roberts and Attorney General Roy Cooper said that the video should be released to the public.
